ABOUT THIS ALBUM

Album Notes

From the Berkeley Hills to the Isles of Scotland, from Keith Haring’s graffiti to the studio of an elusive artist, from the poetry of Gwendolyn Brooks to letters and words exchanged between friends and loved ones, Rachel Garlin guides her listeners on a winding road of language, images, and the creative process in her latest album, Wink at July. Tonal ballads and bandy melodies provide a seamless interplay of storytelling and music that encourage listeners to reminisce, celebrate and take solace while navigating our shared human existence. For all its descriptive strength, the 12-song album might be compared to a cherished book of vignettes, except that there is a poetic element, something beautiful and evocative that infuses each song with lyrical as well as narrative power.

Wink at July takes us to varied settings and hosts a cast of characters with whom we relate in unexpected ways. From a painter who lives “up on a ladder in boots” to someone who got her mother’s eyes but can’t see “the blue behind her gaze” to a rookie teacher in Phoenix who “cannot believe the heat” during the era when state prisoners were forced to wear pink uniforms to shame them. With plenty of joyful tracks, the album also offers explanations for sadness in a complex world: “Holding it together is a metaphor / For someone trying not to fall apart / Like the bellows of a loosely hung accordion / That move against a tightly pleated heart.”

The album too, is a constellation of sorts, a planetarium to be entered trustingly in the dark and where Garlin’s voice is a strong by gentle guide. Disparate parts are related in time and place, medium and theme, and yet there is distinct and striking variety. Clearly influenced not only by the folk music from her childhood in Berkeley or the coffeehouse songwriters of her college years in Cambridge, Garlin also brings sensibilities from rock, pop and bluegrass as she presents songs in varied formats from solo acoustic to a full electrified band.

Garlin recorded her April 2015 release Wink At July in San Francisco with producer JJ Wiesler (Matt Nathanson, Girls) and musicians including Michael Urbano (John Hiatt, Smash Mouth), Prairie Prince (original member of Journey, The Tubes), as well as longtime friends and collaborators: Green, Kate Isenberg, Julie Wolf and Jon Evans. Media contact: Wendy Brynford-Jones – wendy at hellowendy dot com – (818)762-7063